On 13th January 1943 this aircraft was being ferried back to its base at Leeming from another English airfield when both port engines failed. Flying in poor weather the pilot was unable to maintain height on two engines so force landed the aircraft with its wheels down in a small field at 15.55hrs in the vicinity of Normanby Manor, 1.5 miles North of Little Barugh and near to Riseborough Hall to the west of Pickering. No injuries were reported. On landing the aircraft tipped up onto it's nose and sustained some damage. There were no navigator or wireless operator in the aircraft for this flight. The pilot was an instructor with the Unit.
The cause of the incident was put at there being little fuel in the tanks when it took off and when these ran dry the engines on the port side failed. Whilst I have yet to find an account of it being the case it seems likely that the crew of the aircraft had been undertaking a training flight the previous day and had been forced to land at an airfield away from their home base of Leeming. For whatever reason the navigator and wireless operator (and possibly the trainee pilot) made their own way back to base and the remaining four crew and the instructor pilot were tasked with flying the aircraft back to base. No extra fuel was put into the aircraft and eventually the aircraft ran out of fuel powering the port engines. Why the aircraft landed wheels down is not known, this was not common practice.
Pilot - P/O Murray S F (Buck) Schneider RCAF (J/16432), of Brandon, Manitoba. Uninjured.
Crew - Names unknown, Uninjured.
P/O Schneider (pictured in the centre) had flown with 10 Squadron in late 1941 and early 1942. He and his earlier crew had been involved in another more serious accident near Northallerton on 15th January 1942 when Halifax L9622 crashed just north of the town on return from a failed Op to Hamburg, they suffered engine trouble and dropped their bomb load in the sea before making for home. All on board suffered very serious injuries including Sgt Scheider who sustained serious head injuries. His crew would not survive the night and all six died. It seems likely that after a lengthy period in hospital that the pilot returned to flying and was probably screened and involved in instructing at 1659 HCU when this incident at Riseborough occured.
On 26th June 1943 he was still instructing with 1659 HCU when again he had to force land after a multi-engine failure in Halifax V9984 at Brafferton, Yorkshire. The aircraft was written off.
Sadly his fate in the long term was probably inevitable. He was later posted back to operational flying and was lost on 9th October 1943 when 405 Squadron Lancaster JA980 was shot down by a night fighter. Five were killed and there were two who became PoW's. Schneider is buried in Hannover War Cemetery. His age on the CWGC database is not given. Also on this aircraft was the flight engineer from 408 Squadron Halifax JD174 which crashed on the North Yorkshire Moors in 1943 near Hawnby. Both had been posted to 405 Squadron for Pathfinder duties.
Halifax W1150 was built to contract B982938/39 by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered directly to 78 Squadron at Croft in April 1942. On an unspecified date it was transferred to 76 Squadron at nearby Middleton St.George and was then transferred back to 78 Squadron who had in the mean time moved themselves to Middleton St.George. On 7th October 1942 it was transferred to 1659 HCU when the unit formed at Leeming. It suffered Cat.B/FA damage in the incident at Riseborough on 13th January 1943. It was removed and repaired in works and upon completion of repairs it was issued to 1661 HCU at Winthorpe. It was transferred to 1662 HCU at Blyton in October 1943 when 1661 HCU ceased to operate Halifaxes. It then served with 1662 HCU until being struck off charge on 25th January 1945.